Space colonization with 3D printers

Mankind can not continually stick to its own planet, due to the endless supply of natural resources and growing populations. Sooner or later we will have to start colonizing the cosmos. We may not, however, have to personally reach out to foreign planets, but simply print them.

Space radiation is currently the greatest threat to long space travel and can have a very negative impact on astronaut organisms. This means that colonization of space, especially with the current technology of extremely slow star drives, would require a journey that lasts not for years, but for decades. It is difficult to imagine such an undertaking, and especially the necessity to prohibit adequate stockpiles of food, water and oxygen, in order to survive such a mission.

Adam Steltzner, chief NASA engineer overseeing Curiosity’s mission, however, has another idea for cosmic colonization, so that we do not even have to leave our planet. The idea is to implant our genetic code into a bacterium that will easily survive a space trip and then send it to alien planets. On the spot, special 3D printers will use ourDNA to create people directly on the surface of a foreign world.

It sounds unreliable, but Harvard biologist Gary Ruvkun believes that the idea of ​​sending bacteria to transform planets is possible. Bacteria can be a carrier of information, so it’s enough to send them in the company of robots that deal with “producing” people.